Anti-violence group A Mother’s Love Initiative finds permanent home in north Minneapolis

A Minneapolis nonprofit is gearing up to open its very own resource center after years of fundraising efforts and challenges.

For the past eight years, A Mother’s Love Initiative has been working to prevent violent crime in their neighborhood by building stronger families.

“You can’t let your kids go outside anymore because you’re afraid of gunfire,” north Minneapolis parent Christina Monson said.

Monson calls it a sad reality while living on the North Side of Minneapolis. As a mother of two teenage sons, she said limiting their time outside is meant to keep them alive.

“I don’t let them go down four blocks down to the park where they would usually go to play basketball because there was gunfire that hit the ground once,” she said.

Right down the street, her new neighbor, A Mother’s Love Initiative, is dedicated to making the community safer.

For the first time, the nonprofit has its own permanent location to do the work.

“We worked from the trunks of our cars. Whenever we were called out we had everything we needed in the trunks of our car,” said Lisa Clemons, founder of A Mother’s Love Initiative. “We just responded with spare shirts, bags for bandages if we needed to step in for violent crime. We had Narcan, anything needed.”

After searching for a home for a year, everything fell into place in August.

A friend of Clemons footed the bill for the house and the realtor waived the commission.

“I was in disbelief that God would step in and do this to bring these people into my life and bring this blessing,” Clemons said.

The home will serve as a resource center for clients, building a better foundation for long-term help.

Clemons said cutting down on violent crime starts at home and their new home will be a part of the solution.

“You cannot reduce the violence without doing the work inside the house. What’s in the house eventually does what? It spills outside,” Clemons said.

Nonprofit members are still putting the finishing touches on the house. Clemons said the goal is to have the doors open to clients in mid-October.